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HOME Fastpitch Training, 1057 Trumbull Avenue , Suite J, Girard, OH (2026)

09/15/2026

MECHANICS MATTER 💯 — COMPARE & REPORT

BEFORE WE TALK ABOUT THE BALL… WATCH THE PITCHER.

I want to show you two videos.

The first is Isabella’s very first pitching lesson with me.

I was teaching her exactly what I had been taught.

Her feet were good, and honestly, she allowed a lot of things to happen naturally.

But you can see the lack of rotation and the forced positions — especially the ball being taken back on top.

And here's what makes this interesting:

It worked… sometimes.

She could find the glove.

She could throw strikes.

But she also struggled to find the glove doing the exact same thing.

That's what happens when we're relying on a position instead of understanding the movement.

Now watch the second video.

This is Isabella later in her career.

Her warm-up is still simple.

She's loose.
She's relaxed.
She's intentional.

She has her fastball warm-up, focuses on the details, and then gets into her pitches.

But look at the difference in the body.

Everything looks more connected.

More coordinated.

Less forced.

The difference isn't that she suddenly learned how to throw.

She learned how to move.

And that's what we've been talking about throughout this series.

Before we talk about how a pitch moves…

Let's look at what the pitcher is doing to create it.

Because the ball is only the end result.

The body tells the story.

And now…

Let's talk about MOVING THE BALL. 👀 🪄✨️

Not the hard way.
The H❤️‍🔥ME way

There's No Place Like H❤️‍🔥ME.
H❤️‍🔥MEgirls Do It Different 💪🏽

Come grow with us. 🖤

09/13/2026

🥎 CLASSES THIS WEEK AT H❤️‍🔥ME FASTPITCH TRAINING! 🥎

We have a plan for EVERY player. 🖤

From rec & school ball → travel → college, we help maximize where your athlete is NOW and build the plan to get her where she wants to go.

✨ Pitching
✨ Hitting
✨ Defense
✨ Catching
✨ Throwing
✨ Team Training
✨ Recovery
✨ Recruitment Prep

NEW STUDENTS WELCOME during Open Enrollment!

Our instructors bring 20+ years in the game, coaching experience, and a proven resume of success.

But what makes H❤️‍🔥ME different?

We don’t just pass along information. We build developmental plans.

We meet each athlete where she is, identify what she actually needs, and help her build from there.

No cookie-cutter training. No wasted time. Just intentional development.

📲 Schedule online NOW — classes are limited!

There’s No Place Like H❤️‍🔥ME.
H❤️‍🔥MEgirls Do It Different 💪🏽

09/12/2026

MECHANICS MATTER 💯 — COMPARE & REPORT #6

THE RELEASE

Now we're at the part everyone wants to talk about:

The release.

Look at the difference.

On the younger Isabella, you can clearly see the back leg getting left behind.

She's pulling the ball through with her arm instead of allowing the lower half to lead the movement.

The result?

More strain.

Her arm is working harder because her body isn't finishing the pitch together.

And here's the thing:

She was still successful.

She was still throwing strikes.
She was still throwing above-average hard.
She was still a gamer.

And thankfully, at this point, she wasn't experiencing significant arm pain.

But that's exactly why this matters.

Results can hide dysfunction.

If we only look at where the ball goes, we can miss what the athlete's body is doing to get it there.

Now look at Isabella in college.

Stacked.
Connected.
Everything firing together.

Her back leg comes through.

Her knees come together at the finish.

Her body looks like it's working together instead of fighting itself.

That's what I want you to see.

The goal was never just to throw harder.

It was to create an athlete who could produce without destroying herself to do it.

Because if she had continued throwing with that same disconnect year after year, eventually, something could have changed.

Pain. Compensation. Injury.

Maybe the arm.

Maybe somewhere else.

That's why we don't wait for the symptom.

We look at the movement.

And sometimes the most important thing in a pitch isn't where the ball ends up.

It's what the athlete had to do to get it there.

👀 Look at the back leg.

That's where the story is.

Not the hard way.
The H❤️‍🔥ME way

There's No Place Like H❤️‍🔥ME.
H❤️‍🔥megirls Do It Different 💪🏽

Come grow with us. 🖤

09/11/2026

We are so lucky to have a fearless leader like coach Joe OBrien on our team!

GOD BLESS AMERICA 🇺🇸

09/10/2026

MECHANICS MATTER 💯 — COMPARE & REPORT #5

THE LANDING — THE CENTER OF THE PITCH

I always tell my athletes:

The most important part of the pitch is the very first part.

Not the release.
Not where the ball ends up.

The beginning.

Your mindset. Your setup. How you walk onto the field. What you're telling yourself. How intentional you are before you ever start moving.

Because the beginning is the one part of the pitch you have complete control over.

Everyone wants to tell you the last part of the pitch is the most important.

Why?

Because that's where the result happens.

Where did the ball go?

But what if we're looking at the wrong part?

What if instead of asking “Why did she miss?” we asked:

“What happened before the miss?”

That's where the middle matters.

And this picture is one of my favorite examples.

7th grade Isabella → Freshman-year Isabella.

Look at the landing.

Look at the feet.

Look at the hips.

Look at what the lower half is doing before the ball ever gets delivered.

We're constantly telling pitchers:

“USE YOUR LEGS!”

But look at how often the legs aren't actually working together.

Especially that back leg.

On the left, you can see the foot collapsing and the lower half getting left behind while the upper body continues trying to complete the pitch.

On the right, the lower half is participating.

The foot is more stable.

The hip is rotating.

The body is transferring energy instead of fighting itself.

And just look at how easy it is to see the stress placed on the body in the younger picture.

If I look at the end of a pitch, one of the things I look for is:

What does the body look like at release?

Does it look coordinated?

Connected?

Like everything is working together?

Or does it look like the athlete is trying really, really hard to make something happen?

Because an athlete can absolutely get results while their body is under tremendous stress.

They can throw hard.

They can locate.

They can be a gamer.

And everyone celebrates the result.

But your body knows.

If it's under stress, you're going to feel it.

Look at Isabella's younger picture.

You can see her chin pulling away from her body, her upper body trying to finish the pitch with the arm instead of allowing the different muscle groups to fire and contribute in sequence.

That's the disconnect.

And when you repeat that movement hundreds and thousands of times?

It matters.

Your landing isn't just where your foot ends up.

It's part of what determines what your body is capable of doing next.

At H❤️‍🔥ME, we don't chase symptoms.

We find the cause.

I stopped asking, “How do I get her into this position?”

And started asking:

“How do I allow her body to get there?”

That shift changed Isabella.

It changed my athletes.

And it changed me as a coach.

Because sometimes the biggest breakthrough isn't adding another cue.

It's removing what's getting in the way.

So before you watch the release…

Before you look at where the ball went…

Look at the beginning.

Look at the middle.

Because the ending is simply the result of everything that came before it.

What happens before the ball leaves the hand matters.

A LOT.

Not the hard way.
The H❤️‍🔥ME way.

There's No Place Like H❤️‍🔥ME.
H❤️‍🔥megirls Do It Different

Come grow with us. 🖤

09/10/2026

MECHANICS MATTER 💯 — COMPARE & REPORT #4

GETTING OPEN

When the bottom half doesn't connect, the top half has to work harder.

Look at these two pictures.

This is the point where the pitcher is beginning to open into the pitch.

On the younger Isabella, you can see exactly what I was teaching:

Glove out.
Thumb down.
Arm extended.
Ball on top.

She was still being taught to get behind the ball with her fingers.

But look at her lower half.

Her back foot is flat.
Her toes are pointing toward second base.
Her back hip hasn't started rotating in.

Her arm is trying to lead the movement because her lower half hasn't learned how to connect to it yet.

She knew how to drag the foot.

She didn't yet understand how to use the ground, hip, quad, glute and hamstring to create the rotation.

Now look at Division I Isabella.

Ball coming down leading with pinky.
Glove thumb up.
Inside edge of the toe.
Femur beginning to rotate.
Lower half connected to the movement.

That's a completely different relationship between the bottom and the top.

And THAT is what I want you to start looking for.

Not just where the arm is.

Look at what's happening underneath it.

Because when the lower half doesn't contribute, the upper half has to do more work.

And when we continually ask the arm to create what the body should be creating…

something eventually pays the price.

At HOME, we're always looking from the ground up.

We don't just fix the symptom.

We find the disconnect.

This is one of the biggest changes in Isabella's journey.

She went from being taught to make the position…

to learning how to move into the position.

That's a HUGE difference.

And remember — the younger Isabella was still successful.

Very successful.

This isn't about “bad pitcher vs. good pitcher.”

It's about successful athlete → more efficient athlete.

A long-term healthy athlete.

And that's the whole point of this series.

Can you see the difference? 👀

Next, we're going to look at what happens when that rotation actually starts to travel up the body.

Not the hard way.
The H❤️‍🔥ME way.

Want to throw like a girl? Come grow with us!

There's No Place Like H❤️‍🔥ME.
H❤️‍🔥megirls Do It Different 💪🏽

09/09/2026

MECHANICS MATTER — COMPARE & REPORT #3 🥎

The Launch

Now we're getting into the movement.

Look closely at these two pictures.

Same pitcher.
Young Isabella → Division I Isabella.

The first thing I want you to notice is the glove side.

Remember what I told you in the last post?

I was taught thumb down.

Glove in.
Glove straight out to the catcher.
Open the body.
Then slam the glove into the leg.

But look at Isabella now.

Her glove thumb is UP.

That's not an accident.

That's not a position I forced her into.

That's a body that has learned how to move.

Now look at the lower half.

On younger Isabella, you can see her foot still connected to the rubber because of lack of hip extension and that front leg locking out as she tried to stride and reach as far as she could trying to show the bottom of her cleat to the catcher.

I was teaching her to get there.

Today, we're teaching athletes to let the body get them there.

Instead of forcing the stride with the leg, we want the movement from the ground up to create the extension.

Let the body carry the arms.

Let the movement create the flight.

Strong where you need to be.
Loose where you need to be.
Connected from the ground up.

And here's what I love about this picture on the left:

That younger Isabella was REALLY successful.

This particular picture was taken during one of the most fun championship games I've ever had the privilege of coaching.

It was Game 3 of the day — the championship game.

She had just pitched the entire semifinal game before it. We had about 10 minutes between games, and then she went right back out and pitched the full 7 innings of the championship.

It turned into a nearly 3-hour, down-to-the-wire game.

Back and forth.

Neither team giving in.

We didn't get out of the park until around 10 o'clock that night.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the last at-bats, and we lost by one run — I believe it was 10-9.

But I will never forget that game.

I remember her crying in the parking lot afterward, completely exhausted, saying:

“I didn't think it would be this hard.”

And I remember smiling and telling her:

“Oh, don't worry. It gets harder.”

😂

She has obviously learned that lesson throughout her career.

But here's the part that really matters to me now.

She was physically exhausted, but she didn't need to ice her arm afterward.

She didn't need extensive recovery just to get through the next day.

And this was back when I was still learning, too.

She was still doing things that I wouldn't teach the same way today.

That doesn't mean everything she did back then was bad.

It means there was still more to understand.

And Isabella has always been that kid who would tell me when something didn't feel right.

She challenged me.

She questioned me.

And honestly?

That was one of the greatest gifts she ever gave me.

Because it forced me to keep learning.

And she has continued to evolve her entire career.

Eventually, she got to the point where she didn't need me to tell her something wasn't working.

She could feel it.

She could recognize it.

And she could make the adjustment herself.

Even today, our pitching conversations are different.

I'll give her my critique when I see something, but more often she's telling me about her body, her movement, what she's feeling, what she's working on mentally and physically.

I'm simply a catalyst.

And that's exactly what we want our athletes to become.

Thinkers.
Problem-solvers.
Athletes who can feel, adjust and make decisions for themselves.

That's also why so much of our training at HOME is athlete-focused rather than parent-focused.

Kids need the space to fully focus on the work without worrying about who's watching, whether they're making Mom or Dad happy, or whether someone is paying attention.

Because focus matters.

If you're distracted by a parent, teammate, weather, opposing dugout — anything — you're not fully focused on the task.

And if an athlete is struggling, we don't want to immediately attack the symptom:

Point your glove!
Drag your toe!
Snap harder!

If the cue isn't producing the result...

Maybe the cue isn't the solution.

At HOME, we want to find the cause, not just attack the symptom.

Because when you find the cause, you can create a real solution.

And when an athlete understands the solution, they become adjustable.

That's development.

So look at these two pictures again.

Don't just look at where Isabella is.

Look at how she learned to get there.

Because sometimes the biggest change isn't the position.

It's the understanding behind it.

And we're just getting started.

So… want to learn how to throw like a girl?

Not the hard way.

The H❤️‍🔥ME way

Want to grow with us ? There's No Place Like H❤️‍🔥ME!

H❤️‍🔥megirls Do It Different 💪🏽

09/09/2026

MECHANICS MATTER — COMPARE & REPORT #2

The Load

Let's zoom in. 👀

Same pitcher.
9 years old → Division I

When I look at these pictures now, I see something completely different than I did back then.

I knew the positions I was trying to get Isabella into because those were the positions I had been taught.

I was taught to bring my glove in, swing my arm back, push into my front leg, and have the ball on top.

On my glove side, I was taught to bring my glove into me, then straight toward the catcher to open my body. My thumb pointed down, and I was taught to slam my glove into my leg as I came down through the pitch.

So that's what I practiced.

Thumb down.
Ball on top.
Glove in.
Glove out.
Open up.
Hit the position.

And I taught it.

Looking back now?

Some of those positions look awkward and uncomfortable.

They don't look compatible with how the body naturally wants to move.

But back then, I only knew what I knew.

I threw ALOT. The pain was "normal". And I was tough.

My instruction could only take my athletes as far as my comprehension allowed.

That's a hard thing for a coach to admit, but an important one.

Because knowing information isn't the same as understanding movement.

And this isn't just about what looks good in a picture.

Dysfunction matters.

Over time, poor movement can create excessive stress somewhere in the body. And we're not even talking about the arm yet.

I'm seeing athletes with problems developing in their hips, knees and ankles — even athletes who look incredibly strong.

One of the first things I look at is the knees/ankles.

When I see knee or ankle instability, I know I need to look deeper.

Because at HOME, we don't chase symptoms.

We look for the root cause.

Our focus starts from the ground up — how the athlete engages the bottom half, creates force from the ground, and transfers that energy through the rest of the body.

We're not just trying to make an arm move better.

We're trying to teach the entire body to work together.

That's the difference between the coach I was and the coach I am.

I used to try to make athletes look right.

Now I want them to move better.

And Isabella is still learning.

After her sophomore season at YSU, she came home this summer and made another adjustment to her takeoff because she recognized something that could make her better.

That's the goal.

Not perfection.

Not one perfect position.

Understanding.

Because eventually, I want athletes to understand their own movement well enough to recognize:

“I can make this better.”

So as we go through these pictures, don't just look at where Isabella's body is.

Look at how she got there.

Because sometimes the biggest changes aren't the positions.

They're the movement between them.

And we're just getting started.

So… want to learn how to throw like a girl?

Not the hard way.

The H❤️‍🔥ME way.

Because pitching will always be hard.

But it shouldn't have to feel harder than it needs to. 😉

Come grow with us!

There's No Place Like H❤️‍🔥ME
H❤️‍🔥MEGIRLS Do It Different 💪🏽

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